PanculturaLea-rnscope

Caterpillar Dreaming
September 28 we got the go ahead to downloaded the [PDA/GPS] Virtual Guide software from New England Computer Solutions. We're looking forward to working with Marcus Ragus [M-Learning Learnscope] to test/trial this version build. It's great promoting collaborative learning and social networking tools and practice for students. It's delightful to observe socially shy students metamorphose into a digitally virtual extroverts!

Finally! Multimedia skills are increasingly being seen as valuable for situations other than employment. Alongside the Pancultural-e project I've some great Indigenous adult students completing their Cert 1 in IT. There's something a little surreal watching learners have heaps of [heuristic] fun using Google Chat to talk with each other, even though they are sat in the same room. It reminds me of a Spike Milligan sketch I say 30 years ago: a lonely bedraggled prisoner is tapping a code on a water pipe to communicate with a fellow prisoner. We're told he's been building up the relationship over many years. The camera pans out and we see his fellow prisoner, in the same cell tapping back to him. Well, at least for me, thats why I found it funny....




Anyway, to get back to social networking and collaboration software, yeah its a great empowerment option for students. Its even better when it works for me. Over the fiercely collaborative Learnscope network we scored a huge win when Georgina put us on to Marcus Ragus in Tasmania, gotta go....more later
Marcus has been a godsend. A [visionary] proponent of Mobile learning for over 3 years now, Marcus and his current project collaborators Daniel and Andrew [New England Computer Solutions] are helping to deliver us, so that we know we have arrived. Marcus has kindly set up for an opportunity for the Pancultural-e team to to assist in testing the "Virtual Guide" software application generated by Daniel and Andrew. It's early days yet but we've a team who are intimately familiar interpreting the archetypal, mythical, religious and geographic significance of traditional Aboriginal art. In something of a quantum leap we are now all learning how to create digital dreaming tracks, for others, on portable media devices, which in turn fix their position in the world from a roving band of 12 satellites in low earth orbit. Gotta go again...
Podcast Training
We have a new Learnscoper on the block! Mel Fox is a young and eager new recruit at IAD. Mel comes to us after a 5 year stint at Westpac and is comfortable and confident with matters IT. A 2 min intro to the Mac podcast software [iLife 06] and Mel was up and running [me too as I raced over to her desk to subvert any noisy incoming phone calls!]
The issue were faced with now is that we've half a dozen IAD Learnscope 'poddies'. After a little collaboration we've decided, purely as a market research tool for the Showcase :) to let them all have their 15 megabytes of fame. And just for your consideration , below, we've tacked on a Chinese audio MP3 [Introducing The Dreamtime]after Mel's Language narration. We'd appreciate any feedback from viewers who can understand Mandarin.